Don’t want it to be political. I am failing to understand something. India seems to have exported Vaccines to 55 countries. Maharashtra and few other states has started with one more lockdown. The cases are on the rise & it’s getting worse. A lot of households are being affected by this. Simple question, why isn’t the Charity starting at home? Or is it like part of some trade deals between countries?

The same reason why we sell our apps/products internationally before selling in India. Can raise more $$$ to fund further manufacturing.

Adding to this, the govt was not making the vaccines in a govt facility. These are being manufactured at private facilities with govts usually placing orders at bulk and incentivizing (by the means of rewards or penalties) these companies to deliver them based on what the govt. thinks is the right thing to do. Plus other than this, there are private institutions which have bigger investment in these vaccine manufacturing facilities and the companies have an obligation to ship the vaccines until the govt. stops them (for ex. Serum Instiute has received heavy funding from Bill and Melinda Gates foundation in the past and now Gavi which is another one of their NGOs placed a huge order 100M doses was last I heard of it to deliver vaccines to poorer regions of the world) When we read that India was exporting them that usually meant the govt was either selling or giving the vaccines for free based on what it thought was the right thing to do (vaccine diplomacy is the word being used). Similar arguments can be had over why goto space when people are dying of hunger, or why not tax any luxury at 97%. The govt. chooses to do things balancing both the short term and long term needs

We are not supply limited

It is worth noting that vaccines are not a magic-wand (and neither they provide 100% protection against COVID). For both Covishield or Covaxin, it’ll take at least 2.5 to 3 months (i.e. both doses and the period after that which takes for immunity to build up) before an individual is partly immune from the disease. Current rise in cases is not a result of insufficient vaccination, but is just due to too many idiots roaming around as if pandemic is over.

So US and UK banned vaccine exports since day 1 - India probably does not want to be seen as doing this early on as we manufacture a tonne of vaccines. So I am guessing we exported it while they ramped up their infrastructure for local deliveries. We have started tightening the export numbers and it will slowly be reduced. Hopefully more vaccines get authorised (I heard the Sputnik vaccine is close to it) and eventually we should turn on the taps for mass vaccinations. Currently, we are not constrained by the doses but by last-mile infrastructure (I think). Covishield now requiring 4-6 weeks for dose 2 also adds to the buffer.

I think the Novavax vaccine is also under consideration for emergency use approval by August '21. It is to be manufactured by Serum Institute.

Great points made here. Adding my 2 cents - we simply don't have the supply chain to match the rate of Manufacturing and rate of injection. This is due to the fact that these vaccines need refrigeration (both for storage and transportation). Instead of wasting the vaccine ( as happened in the US in early days), why not sell / donate the surplus to 1. Get good terms in diplomatic ties 2. Make some $ 3. Get people vaccinated 4. More countries on our side when making the next move at UN 😀

@brash-monitor-80970 - i don’t think that’s true. one of the persons in the task force said we had (at that time) capacity and logistics to do 7m doses / day

Curious about the polio vaccine supply chain. India does have a pipeline to do mass vaccination program. Again, not an expert if the semantics are same for both types of vaccines. I did read an article comparing both. If I find that, will link here.

In other nations there is no age barrier like us to get vaccinated everyone who is interested can register and get vaccinated. That's the reason cases reduced in UK and USA here we have age barrier and population is too high. By the time government allows everyone to get vaccinated cases will be spiked too high

@swift-printer-82590 -- do you know of any data based study that you based your inference on? IMHO, the situation isn't that simple. I would love to read more on that. 🙃

@gorgeous-tent-29765 I think you tagged the wrong @swift-printer-82590

I got friends in UK and my family member is a physician in USA I shared the information got from them as they confirmed cases are reduced a lot .

@orange-action-12733 that's not true at all. UK and US have had similar phases like us but are just going much faster. Especially considering per capita.